RISING Northop Hall star Will Higginson will miss the club’s week-long centenary celebrations to follow in the footsteps of Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff.

The 15-year-old from Sychdyn heads to the Yorkshire Dales on Sunday to spend six days at the Bunbury English Schools Cricket Association (ESCA) Festival, held at Sedbergh School.

The Alun School student will be competing with and against the best youngsters in England and Wales at the renowned event, from which 49 players have gone on to play for England, including current captain Vaughan and the fit-again Flintoff.

If Will, an opening batsman and bowler, impresses national selectors, he will win a place in next season’s England Under 16s side.

His selection for the festival is a result of a series of successful trials and his participation in the West of England U15s’ tour of the Caribbean earlier in the year.

Wales international Will, whose father Paul is a former Hall first-team captain, played matches in Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and met the West Indies and Sri Lanka national teams and Windies legends Michael Holding, Jimmy Adams and Joel Garner.